Craig Bellamy's squad Ready to Take on Anybody in FIFA World Cup Qualifying Fixture

Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for learning their semifinal and potential final challengers.

Having ended second in their qualifying group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on home soil.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever team after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of supporters were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that would be incredible.

"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are decent and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so they'll be challenging.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification run, with their only defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the last 16 on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but did have a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

Being his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's star player.

The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure second spot in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.